A change in her approach may pay huge dividends for Saskatchewan’s Sara England
at the 2019 New Holland Canadian Juniors.
Her Regina rink produced one of the loudest reactions to date at the Art Hauser Centre Wednesday night as they won a women’s Championship Pool game by a score of 8-2 over defending national and world champion Kaitlyn Jones of Nova Scotia.
“At first I was trying to block out the noise and not embrace the cheers of the crowd,” England said. “Now that’s become my biggest motivation as you want to hear the fans get loud and cheer after each shot.
“Our team is now in a spot where we feel really comfortable in the arena. The crowds here are going crazy whenever the Saskatchewan teams do something and we’re starting to feed off the energy.”
England, who was the third on Jones’ rink two years ago when they represented Saskatchewan at the juniors, took advantage of a missed in-off hit attempt by her former teammate in the seventh end as she scored three points to take a 6-2 lead.
“We had made a ton of shots up to that point and we had some confidence going,” England said.
“(Third) Rachel (Erickson) made a great line call and the girls (second Sarah Hoag and lead Jade Goebel) swept it perfectly on my first shot (which was a hit attempt that left her sitting two). That forced her (Jones) into a tough shot that we got a bit of a break on, which allowed us to make that draw into the four-foot for our three points.”
The other women’s Championship Pool game on Wednesday night saw Northern Ontario’s Kira Brunton defeat New Brunswick’s Justine Comeau by a score of 8-3.
Tyanna Bain’s Northwest Territories rink got their first win of the week in a Seeding Pool match at the Prince Albert Golf and Curling Club in a 7-6 affair with Nunavut’s Sadie Pinksen.
Over in the Men’s Championship Pool, it was a strong return to form for Manitoba’s J.T. Ryan as he rebounded from a two-loss day on Tuesday with a 10-3 victory over Alberta’s Desmond Young.
“We don’t usually have very long meetings as a team but we had a long chat after last night,” Ryan said. “We weren’t being ourselves and our focus today was to come back and play like we have been all year.
“We had two good battles with Nova Scotia and Northern Ontario yesterday, but we just weren’t as sharp as we usually are. It was great to play like we know we can here tonight.”
Newfoundland & Labrador’s Greg Blyde got steals in the eighth and ninth end of his Championship Pool contest as he topped Nova Scotia’s Graeme Weagle by a score of 10-6.
In Seeding Pool play, New Brunswick’s Jack Smeltzer won a 10-4 affair with the Yukon’s Trygg Jensen and Sawer Kaeser led his Northwest Territories rink to their first victory of the week as they defeated Nunavut’s Javen Komaksiutikask in an 8-5 contest.
Standings After Draw 15
Men’s
Championship Pool
- British Columbia (Tyler Tardi) – 7-0
- Saskatchewan (Rylan Kleiter) – 6-1
- Manitoba (J.T. Ryan) – 5-2
- Newfoundland & Labrador (Greg Blyde) – 4-3
- Northern Ontario (Tanner Horgan) – 4-3
- Nova Scotia (Graeme Weagle) – 4-3
- Quebec (Vincent Roberge) – 4-3
- Alberta (Desmond Young) – 3-4
Seeding Pool
- New Brunswick (Jack Smeltzer) – 4-3
- Ontario (Samuel Steep) – 4-3
- Prince Edward Island (Tyler Smith) – 2-5
- Northwest Territories (Sawer Kaeser) – 1-6
- Yukon (Trygg Jensen) – 1-6
- Nunavut (Javen Komaksiutikask) – 0-7
Women’s
Championship Pool
- Alberta (Selena Sturmay) – 7-0
- British Columbia (Sarah Daniels) – 6-1
- Manitoba (Mackenzie Zacharias) – 5-2
- Quebec (Laurie St-Georges) – 5-2
- Saskatchewan (Sara England) – 5-2
- New Brunswick (Justine Comeau) – 4-3
- Northern Ontario (Kira Brunton) – 4-3
- Nova Scotia (Kaitlyn Jones) – 4-3
Seeding Pool
- Newfoundland & Labrador (Mackenzie Glynn) – 3-4
- Ontario (Thea Coburn) – 3-4
- Host Team (Skylar Ackerman) – 1-6
- Northwest Territories (Tyanna Bain) – 1-6
- Prince Edward Island (Lauren Ferguson) – 1-6
- Nunavut (Sadie Pinksen) – 0-7
Draw 16 Schedule – 9 a.m.
Art Hauser Centre
- Sheet A – British Columbia/Quebec (Women’s Championship Pool)
- Sheet B – Saskatchewan/Northern Ontario (Men’s Championship Pool)
- Sheet C – Nova Scotia/Alberta (Men’s Championship Pool)
- Sheet D – Newfoundland & Labrador/Nunavut (Women’s Seeding Pool)
- Sheet E – Saskatchewan/Northern Ontario (Women’s Championship Pool)
Prince Albert Golf & Curling Club
- Sheet F – New Brunswick/Ontario (Men’s Seeding Pool)
- Sheet G – Northwest Territories/Ontario (Women’s Seeding Pool)
- Sheet H – Northwest Territories/Yukon (Men’s Seeding Pool)
- Sheet I – Manitoba/British Columbia (Men’s Championship Pool)
